The Portfolio An Architecture StudentÕs Handbook docx

The Portfolio
An Architecture StudentÕs Handbook
Igor Marjanovi «c, Katerina RŸedi Ray
and Lesley Naa Norle Lokko
Seriously useful guides
Architectural Press
AMSTERDAM BOSTON HEIDELBERG LONDON NEW YORK OXFORD PARIS
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Architectural Press
An imprint of Elsevier
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First published 2003
Copyright © 2003, Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
The right of Igor Marjanovi«c, Katerina RŸedi Ray and Lesley
Naa Norle Lokko to be identified as the authors of this work
has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988
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Typeset, printed and bound in Great Britain
About the authors
v
Acknowledgements
vii
List of Illustrations
ix
1 Introduction 1
Why Make a Portfolio? 1
The Handbook 2
2 Getting Started 5
What is a Portfolio? 5
Portfolio Destinations 18
How To Get There 28
3 Design Cultures 32
Cultural Capital 32
Academic Markets 34

Professional Markets Ð How Do You Know This is
The Place for You? 38
International Cultures 41
4 Academic Portfolio 57
The Portfolio in the Academy 57
The Academic Narrative 61
The Academic CV, References and Statement of Intent 65
Contents
5 Professional Portfolio 70
The Portfolio in the Workplace 70
The Professional Narrative 70
The Professional Resume, References and Cover Letter 75
Documenting Built Work 78
Construction Drawings 80
6 Preparing the Portfolio of Work 82
Selecting, Recording and Storing Your Work 82
Scanning, Reducing and Reproducing Your Work 86
7 The Folio Container 91
Buying a Portfolio Container 91
Making a Portfolio Container 97
8 Making the Traditional Portfolio 102
Graphic Design 102
Assembling the Portfolio 111
9 Making the Digital Portfolio 113
Digital vs. ÔTraditionalÕ Portfolio 113
CD Rom 118
Acrobat Reader and PDF Files 122
Web-based Portfolios 123
10 Afterwards 127
Ways of Sending Your Work 127

About the portfolio contributors 129
Index 133
iv Contents
Igor Marjanovi«c is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Architecture and
Interim Director of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Illinois
at Chicago. He has practiced and exhibited widely, including Europe,
South and North America. IgorÕs design awards include those from
the Chicago Architectural Club, the Art Institute of Chicago,
Universities UK, and the International Union of Architects (UIA). His
research focuses on travel, hybridity, and the appropriation of
montage practices in architectural design. He is working on a book
which explores the relationship between architectural and cinematic
montage. With Katerina RŸedi Ray he is one of ten selected exhibitors
in the forthcoming architectural exhibition
Chicago: Issues for a New
Millennium at the Art Institute of Chicago
. Igor studied architecture at
the University of Belgrade, Serbia, the Moscow Architectural Institute,
Russia, and the University of Illinois at Chicago, USA. He is currently
undertaking research for his PhD by Design at the Bartlett School of
Architecture, University College London, UK.
Katerina RŸedi Ray is the Director of the School of Art at Bowling
Green State University. From 1996 to 2002 she was the Director of
the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She
studied architecture at the Architectural Association in London, UK
and has a masters and a doctoral degree in architecture from
University College London, UK. She has taught architectural design
and theory at the Architectural Association, the Bartlett School and
Kingston University, UK. She has won various European design
awards and she has acted as a visiting professor, critic and lecturer

at numerous European and north-American architecture and art
About the Authors
schools. Her publications include
Desiring Practices: Architecture,
Gender and the Interdisciplinary, Desiring Practices: Artists and
Architects
and
The Dissertation: An Architecture StudentÕs Handbook
.
She is currently working on several books, including
Chicago is
History
,
Bauhaus Dream-house: Identity Formation in Modernist
Design Education
, and
133 and Rising: African-American Women
Architects
. With Igor Marjanovi«c she is one of ten selected exhibitors
in the forthcoming architectural exhibition
Chicago: Issues for a New
Millennium at the Art Institute of Chicago
.
Lesley Naa Norle Lokko is Course Director of the MArch. programme
in Cultural Identity, Globalization and Architecture at the Bartlett
School of Architecture, University College London, UK. Lesley studied
architecture at the Bartlett, UCL where she also taught for two years
before moving to the USA to teach at Iowa State University and at
the University of Illinois at Chicago. On her return to the UK in 2000,
she taught at Kingston University and was the Academic Leader at

University of North London before re-joining the Bartlett in 2002. She
is the author of
White Papers, Black Marks: Race, Culture,
Architecture
and has published and lectured widely on the subject of
race, cultural identity and diasporic cultures and how these inform
architectural and spatial production. She is a founder member of
ThirdSpace, an organization which aims to provide a forum for archi-
tects and academics interested in issues of architecture and postcolo-
nial/cultural studies. She has also just written her first novel
(
Sundowners
, due for publication January 2004) and now divides her
time between academia and fiction writing.
vi About the Authors
We wish to offer our sincere thanks to Dr Jonathan Hill for his assis-
tance at various times in this project. We also wish to thank the
various tutors and professors who have worked with the authors
whose portfolios appear in the book, as well as, most importantly the
authors themselves. In addition, we wish to thank Anthony Marty for
his design and technical assistance relating to the web page accom-
panying the book, and James McKay for technical assistance with the
many digital glitches we encountered. We are also sincerely grateful
to Alison Yates and Elizabeth Whiting, of Elsevier, for their consis-
tently helpful advice. Finally, and most importantly, we wish to thank
Jasna Marjanovi«c and Roger Ray for their unfailing support in a
myriad ways throughout all stages of this project.
Igor Marjanovi«c
Katerina RŸedi Ray
Lesley Naa Norle Lokko

Acknowledgements
This Page Intentionally Left Blank
Chapter 2
2.1 Christopher Ciraulo, Osaka International Design Competition
2.2 Christopher Ciraulo, Undergraduate work, University of Illinois at
Chicago, IL, USA
2.3 Jeffrey Morgan, Block 37: New Media Center, Chicago, IL, USA,
Schiff Award, 2001
2.4 Jeffrey Morgan, Block 37: New Media Center, Chicago, IL, USA,
Schiff Award, 2001
2.5 Anthony Max D. Marty, Undergraduate work, Illinois Institute of
Technology, Chicago, IL, USA
2.6 Nicholas Smith and Katrin Klingenberg, Collage
2.7 RED (A. Ramirez and D. Stojanovic), Portfolio
2.8 Igor Marjanovi«c, Kremlin Redesigned (together with Uros
Vukovi«c and Marija Milinkovi«c), Moscow Architectural Institute,
Russia
2.9 Igor Marjanovi«c, Kremlin Redesigned (together with Uros
Vukovi«c and Marija Milinkovi«c), Moscow Architectural Institute,
Russia
Chapter 3
3.1 Christopher Ciraulo, Light Pavilion
3.2 Zane Karpova, Shi-ga Museum, SOM Travelling Fellowship
2002, Schiff Award 2002
3.3 Zane Karpova, Shi-ga Museum, SOM Travelling Fellowship
2002, Schiff Award 2002
3.4 Ivan Subanovi«c, Aristotelous Axis, Thessalonica, Greece,
International Competition, second prize (together with Milan
Maksimovi«c, Karolina Damjanovi«c, Zorica Petkovi«c)
List of illustrations

3.5 Ivan Subanovi«c, Bus Terminal, Lazarevac, Serbia, National
Design Competition, second prize (together with Milan
Maksimovi«c, Maja Kusmuk, Zorica Petkovi«c)
3.6 Marjan Colletti, The Professional Architect
3.7 Clare Lyster, Monaghan
3.8 Clare Lyster, Monaghan
3.9 RED (A. Ramirez and D. Stojanovi«c), Portfolio
3.10 RED (A. Ramirez and D. Stojanovi«c), A Project for Beirut
3.11 Mark Chalmers, R
Chapter 4
4.1 Matthew Springett, Manhattan Pig Farm, diploma portfolio, the
Bartlett School of Architecture 1997/98, London, UK, The RIBA
Silver Medal Winner, 1998
4.2 Matthew Springett, Manhattan Pig Farm, diploma portfolio, the
Bartlett School of Architecture 1997/98, London, UK, The RIBA
Silver Medal Winner, 1998
4.3 Matthew Springett, Manhattan Pig Farm, diploma portfolio, the
Bartlett School of Architecture 1997/98, London, UK, The RIBA
Silver Medal Winner, 1998
4.4 Matthew Springett, Manhattan Pig Farm, diploma portfolio, the
Bartlett School of Architecture 1997/98, London, UK, The RIBA
Silver Medal Winner, 1998
4.5 Christopher Ciraulo, Undergraduate coursework at the University
of Illinois at Chicago
4.6 Christopher Ciraulo, Digital Media concentration coursework
4.7 Jeffrey Morgan, Intermodal Train Station, Mendrisio, Switzerland
4.8 Jeffrey Morgan, Intermodal Train Station, Mendrisio, Switzerland
4.9 Dr Jose Gamez, Principal Investigator and Jeff Hartnett, Co-
Investigator, Las Vegas Research Project
Chapter 5

5.1 Clare Lyster, Tower House
5.2 Rahman Polk, Success and Independence Network
5.3 Mark Chalmers, The Pig, diploma portfolio, Kingston University,
London, UK
5.4 Mark Chalmers, The Disney Store
5.5 Anthony Max D. Marty, Burnham Prize Competition
5.6 Ryan Knock, Warehouse Mixed-Use Conversions
5.7 Nicholas Smith and Katrin Klingenberg, Practice image grid
x List of Illustrations
Chapter 6
6.1 Anthony Halawith, Adaptive Restaurant Design, M.Arch. thesis
project, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA
6.2 Anthony Halawith, M.Arch. thesis project
6.3 Anthony Halawith, Adaptive Restaurant Design, M.Arch. thesis
project, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA
6.4 Jeffrey Morgan, Digital Cinema Studio, London, UK
6.5 Matthew Springett, Manhattan Pig Farm, diploma portfolio, the
Bartlett School of Architecture 1997/98, London, UK, The RIBA
Silver Medal Winner 1998
6.6 Igor Marjanovi«c, Chicago Townhouse (together with Petar
Tomicic)
6.7 Igor Marjanovi«c, Chicago Ð Floating City, Chicago Architectural
Club Design Competition, third Prize (together with Vuk Vujovi«c)
Chapter 7
7.1 Erik Heitman, Architectural Portfolio, Second Year, B.Arch.
Programme, University of Kansas
7.2 Erik Heitman, Architectural Portfolio, Second Year, B.Arch.
Programme, University of Kansas
7.3 Erik Heitman, Architectural Portfolio, Second Year, B.Arch.
Programme, University of Kansas

7.4 Erik Heitman, Architectural Portfolio, Second Year, B.Arch.
Programme, University of Kansas
7.5 Matthew Springett, Manhattan Pig Farm, diploma portfolio, the
Bartlett School of Architecture 1997/98, London, UK, The RIBA
Silver Medal Winner 1998
7.6 Matthew Springett, Manhattan Pig Farm, diploma portfolio, the
Bartlett School of Architecture 1997/98, London, UK, The RIBA
Silver Medal Winner 1998
7.7 Andrew Gilles, portfolio container
7.8 Andrew Gilles, portfolio container
7.9 Andrew Gilles, portfolio container
7.10 Andrew Gilles, rŽsumŽ and business card holder
7.11 Anthony Max D. Marty, portfolio
7.12 Anthony Max D. Marty, portfolio
List of Illustrations xi
Chapter 8
8.1 Clare Lyster, Smart Curtain
8.2 Clare Lyster, Smart Curtain
8.3 Katrin Klingenberg, Daniel Szwaj, Hubertus Hillinger, Pier 42
8.4 Christopher Ciraulo, Life Long Learning Center
8.5 Marjan Colletti, M.Arch. portfolio, the Bartlett School of
Architecture, London, UK
8.6 Igor Marjanovi«c, The Hybrid Bridge, M.Arch. thesis project,
University of Illinois at Chicago, UIC SOM Award
8.7 Igor Marjanovi«c, The Hybrid Bridge
Chapter 9
9.1 Marcosandmarjan, Portfolio Studio, London, UK
9.2 Marcosandmarjan, Portfolio Studio, London, UK
9.3 Anthony Halawith, digital portfolio no. 1
9.4 Anthony Halawith, digital portfolio no. 2

9.5 Ryan Knock, CD cover no. 1 for the digital portfolio
9.6 Ryan Knock, CD cover no. 2 for the digital portfolio
9.7 Ivan Subanovic, M.Arch. thesis project (together with Marcel
Ortmans, I Yu, Markus Ruuskanen), Design Research Labora-
tory, Architectural Association, London, UK
9.8 Ivan Subanovi«c, B.Arch. thesis project, University of Belgrade,
Serbia, Chamber of Commerce Award, 2000
9.9 Christopher Ciraulo, 3D Softimage renderings
9.10 Igor Marjanovi«c, Digital Gallery 1100, Digital Media Institute,
University of Illinois at Chicago
9.11 Igor Marjanovi«c, Digital Gallery 1100, Digital Media Institute,
University of Illinois at Chicago
xii List of Illustrations
Why Make a Portfolio?
A carefully wrought portfolio of work will be the single most important
record and outcome of your architectural education. The major part of
your education is always going to be the design of buildings as
executed through drawings, models and other kinds of visual repre-
sentation, and your portfolio records the ideas, the processes and the
result of your work as a designer in the architecture studio as well as
in other visually oriented classes. It can also contain other kinds of
information, from your professional work in an architectural office, to
your creative work in related artistic disciplines, your built work if you
have construction experience, and your written work if that is an
important part of your educational process. It is a document with many
functions and will therefore take different shapes depending on the
situation for which you need it. If it is well considered and crafted it
will certainly open many doors for you Ð to further study, to different
areas of work in the architectural profession, and quite possibly work
in related fields. You will also need it to get teaching positions in

academia, or in secondary (UK) or high school (USA) education. It
can also help you win prizes and scholarships while you are on your
way.
Whichever purpose it needs to serve, your portfolio is your passport
and your visiting card, through which you introduce yourself to the
new worlds you wish to enter and by which your value is
established and compared to others. Very importantly, it is also a
document through which you make a contribution to how we
1 Introduction
understand architecture; it is your chance to clarify and share what
you believe and aspire to, and to present new ideas, techniques,
observations and experiences, mainly to others but sometimes just
to yourself.
The Handbook
This handbook provides a guide to the whole process of designing,
making and sending out or presenting a portfolio. It explains carefully
what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and what the major pitfalls
are to avoid when making a portfolio. Each university and architec-
tural programme does, of course, have its own rules and requirements
for a portfolio. Architectural offices also vary in what they like to see
in a portfolio. Sometimes these requirements are explicit, and
sometimes they are less tangible. Whichever the case, you are
strongly advised to check everything said here with what different
institutions and offices expect. It is also important for you to under-
stand that sometimes the advice we will offer you may differ from that
given by your professors or colleagues in an architectural office. This
is because the architectural discipline is becoming more and more
pluralistic in its ideas and cultures, and architectural portfolios neces-
sarily reflect that pluralism. Even if it were once possible, there is no
longer a single type or format of portfolio that will fit all contexts.

Instead you will need to make choices depending on the destination
or design culture for which the portfolio is intended. Nonetheless, if
you follow the guidance in this book, and if you add to it your own
intelligent and rigorous creative efforts, you should go on to produce
a portfolio of the best possible standard for the different situations in
which portfolios are needed.
The book, following this introduction, is divided into five chapters.
Chapter 2 Getting Started outlines the essential ideas behind a
portfolio, the kind of occasions for which you need to prepare differ-
ent portfolios, different kinds of specialization in architecture, and how
you might adjust the message of your portfolio to the audience that
will be looking at it.
Chapter 3 Design Cultures explains why portfolios differ in form and
content in different design cultures, and how they represent cultural
value. It gives some practical advice about how to find out about the
design cultures of different architectural schools and practices, and
how to understand some regional and global differences.
2 The Portfolio
Chapter 4 Academic Portfolio then focuses in detail on how to
prepare an academic portfolio, what it needs to contain, and how to
format an academic CV, statement of intent, references and letters of
recommendation.
Chapter 5 Professional Portfolio examines in detail how to prepare
a professional portfolio, covering portfolio form and content, rŽsumŽ,
references and the cover letter, with special emphasis on the selec-
tion and presentation of built work.
Chapter 6 Preparing Material offers practical advice on selecting,
recording and storing work, as well as scanning, reducing and repro-
ducing it.
Chapter 7 The Folio Container is about making the physical port-

folio container itself, whether this is bought or made specially for the
occasion.
Chapter 8 Making the Traditional Portfolio gives advice about the
organization and layout of images and text in the portfolio for a small
selection of different portfolio types.
Chapter 9 Digital Portfolio focuses on the advantages and disad-
vantages of the digital portfolio, as well as different formats such as
CDs or web pages, and outlines some basic technical issues related
to the digital production of images and animations.
The final chapter, Chapter 10 Afterwards gives advice about how
best to send your portfolio, whether in physical or digital format, and
also suggests useful ways to keep updating your portfolio.
Throughout this book, we are very proud to say, you will also find
examples of pages from outstanding portfolios previously completed
by architecture students. Some of these are prizewinning portfolios
submitted to the Royal Institute of British Architects in London for its
international Presidents Silver and Bronze Medal student competition.
Others are award winners in the Skidmore Owings and Merrill
Travelling Fellowship, the most important architectural competition for
USA students. Other portfolios helped their authors to obtain work in
architectural practice, in architectural education, or in related design
disciplines such as graphic design or advertising. You will therefore
find not only pertinent advice but also instances of how architectural
students have tackled the portfolio with extremely successful results.
We have tried to point out individual strategies used by the contribu-
tors in their portfolios in captions below the images at the end of each
chapter. These groups of images will give you a quick visual intro-
duction to some of the issues covered in each chapter. However, you
will still need to read each chapter itself to get a balanced overview
of the issues it covers.

Introduction 3
Accompanying this book is a website that shows the full portfolios
of the contributors to this book. In many instances it also includes the
contributorsÕ rŽsumŽs or curriculum vitae so that you can get an idea
how to format those for yourself. We encourage you to go to the
website to get the overall impression of each portfolio, as individual
pages certainly do not do justice to the creativity, thoughtfulness,
technical ability and hard work that have gone into the making of each
of these portfolios. The website url is
The website will also give you an idea of the diversity of formats
and approaches which you can explore as you prepare your portfolio.
We hope that it will help and encourage you to make your portfolio a
document of which you will be proud and which will represent you well
in the broader world of architecture and design.
4 The Portfolio
Getting started involves understanding the most basic aspects of a port-
folio and its preparation. Getting started also involves understanding why
you need a portfolio and what it is for. This chapter will help you get
started, outlining some of the issues to help tailor your portfolio to
various destinations in academia and practice.
What is a Portfolio?
A portfolio of work is defined in different ways depending on the situa-
tion. There are different portfolios for different occasions. Obviously
you will have one kind of portfolio at the end of your second year as
an undergraduate student and another kind when you have finished
post-professional studies. More importantly, when you come to make
your portfolio at the moments in your life when you want your aca-
demic or professional career to develop or change, you will most
probably make a different portfolio to suit where you would like to
be heading.

However, all these different kinds of portfolios will have one thing
in common. They will contain your work in a format that will make it
easy for the portfolio to be transported physically and digitally to many
different situations. The most normal format for a portfolio most closely
resembles a book. It can be a small book (A4 or 8
1
Ú2" × 11" (210 × 279
mm)) which is easy to mail, or it can be a large book, almost like a
collection of paintings (A1 or 24" × 36" (594 × 841 mm)) which you
take with you to interviews. Increasingly, portfolios are digital and can
be sent in CD format or exist as a website. With a digital portfolio you
2 Getting Started
will have more freedom to play with the format but will also be relying
on someone else to understand how to access it.
Remember, it is still easier for most people to turn pages than to
navigate links and understand graphic and animation software.
All these formats will have one thing in common. The fact that the
portfolio is a travelling document, that its function and meaning may
change depending on the context, and that your career may hang on
it, means that it has to be tough, beautiful, clearly organized, very
easy to understand and even easier to use.
Whatever the context for which you need the portfolio, or the phase
of your career, there are basic rules about the portfolio that you should
remember. They are:
• DOCUMENTATION
• EDITING
• MESSAGE
• AUDIENCE
Documentation
The first rule for making a portfolio is to keep every piece of work you

produce in the studio, in the office and in related visual, technical, or
practical areas. Taking care of your work is the most important profes-
sional activity you will ever do. Although you may not see the connec-
tion now, later on you may need to show some of your exploratory
sketches for a design project because a particular Diploma Course or
graduate programme may want to see how you think through drawing.
Or you may need construction photographs because a particular office
may want to see that you already have some site experience, and
that you know how to recognize good from bad construction. So, get
into the habit of scanning or photographing hand-drawn work or
models at regular points during the project. A good time to do this is
immediately after a review or jury Ð it gives you time to reflect on the
totality of the work, and if you do it well, it will make you proud of
what you have done. Make sure you date the work Ð memory alone
can play tricks later on. Buy a plan chest (UK) or a flat file (USA) for
your flat work. Take photos when you go on site and date them. Keep
an album or digital record of photos. Get extra copies of construction
drawings that you produced or co-produced. Save all your digital files
and make sure you get CD copies of digital work so that your work
6 The Portfolio
is always backed up outside as well as inside your computer. Dating,
scanning and filing work is good to do when you need a break from
creative work. This will create a large volume of work, so think about
its ease of storage and transportation. As you are designing, whether
you are making sketches, drawings or models, use consistent sizes
or plan to assemble work into consistent formats at regular intervals
Ð it will be much easier to transport and store. Having a thousand
pieces of work of different sizes will make your life really difficult in
the long run.
However you choose to do it, remember: when in doubt, be

consistent and DOCUMENT!
Editing
The second rule for making a portfolio, however, is knowing what it
is not. The portfolio is definitely not an archive of every piece of work
that you have ever done. At a basic practical level you will not have
the time and money to reproduce all that work, you will not want to
pay vast amounts of money to mail it, and certainly the people who
will be looking at your portfolio will not have time to look at everything
you have done. In a professional situation, especially if there is an
economic recession and greater competition for work, very often if you
do not capture in the first few pages of your portfolio the imaginations
of the people who are looking at it, they may not even get all the way
through your portfolio. That means you will need to edit the portfolio
itself to include only the best, the most engaging and sometimes the
most provocative, work. In addition, you will need to remember that
there are also differences between portfolio expectations in different
countries. In the USA the portfolio you will most likely use to apply for
entry into graduate school will probably be mailed in and be smaller
in size and volume whereas in the UK, where you often take original
work or large print-outs to a personal interview, the portfolio can be
larger in size and contain more work. In the UK you may be able to
explain work in person whereas in the USA you will need to make
sure your portfolio will say everything you want your audience to
know. Finally, you will need to edit your work because your portfolio
will have to be as clear as possible about your ideas and experience,
and should only contain work that shows your strengths.
The second rule for making a portfolio is therefore EDIT, EDIT,
EDIT!
Getting Started 7
Message

The third rule for making a portfolio is to know exactly what you want
to show and why. As an architectural student you will need a portfo-
lio for different occasions. What you decide to edit out and what you
decide to keep in the portfolio will depend on how you want to be
seen and what the portfolio is for. What kind of a message are you
trying to get across? By this we do not mean a verbal message,
although you will almost certainly want to use words to emphasize
your focus in your work. A portfolio message should clearly com-
municate what kind of architectural interests and skills you have. For
example, the portfolio you will use to apply to graduate school may
emphasize your creativity and ability to work through challenging
ideas and unusual forms, whereas a portfolio you use to apply for a
professional job in an office may need to include construction
drawings, site photographs and schedules to emphasize your tech-
nical competence. Even more specifically, if you are applying to a
graduate school because you want to join that schoolÕs specialization
in community architecture or activist practice, you will need to select
documents from your vast archive or work which show both a breadth
of creativity and your special interest in community architecture. You
might include photos of work you have done in community gardens,
essays you have written on collaborative practices or public art, and
highlight those projects you did as an undergraduate which show that
you have an ability to respond to the needs of others. If you are apply-
ing to a school where you wish to pursue design and robotics, say,
make sure that you include in your portfolio any moving objects you
have made, or research essays and reports on the subject.
Occasionally this may mean that you might have to make a new
project just for the portfolio. If your education to date has not provided
you with the kind of work you think you will need to go to the next
phase of your career, you may need to take extra evening classes or

make additional drawings to show just how committed you are to the
direction you want to pursue. For example, if you have a very tech-
nical undergraduate portfolio and you want to get into a diploma or
graduate school that is very artistic, you may need to take an evening
class in sculpture or drawing. Making a portfolio means you are
making an identity for yourself, through the work that you select
to show.
The third rule for making a portfolio therefore is to be very
clear about THE MESSAGE.
8 The Portfolio
Audience
As you can see, the message of your portfolio will change depending
on the next intended phase of your career. The most important thing
to remember is that although you, the author of the work, and your
message, may remain the same during a particular phase of your
career, the audience for your work may change dramatically. In many
cases you yourself may want to use the portfolio to change your
environment Ð sometimes dramatically if you are thinking of changing
countries or continents to get into graduate school, a postgraduate
programme or an architectural office. Your portfolio will need to show
not only the message Ð what you already do well Ð but how what you
do well might fit into the world of the people who will be looking at
your work. You need to understand your audience and its conventions
before you prepare the portfolio. If you do that you will have the best
chance possible to communicate appropriately. This chapter, as well
as Chapters 3 and 4 focus on this in more detail, as the audiences
for your portfolio will definitely have a significant impact on the format
and content of the portfolio.
The fourth and most important rule for making the portfolio is
therefore to understand THE AUDIENCE.

To help you understand this a little better, here are some of the
most common types of occasions for which you will need to prepare
a portfolio.
Entering and Passing the Academic Year/Portfolio Review
Although some schools of architecture require portfolios for admission
into a degree course in the UK, or the undergraduate programme in
the USA, it is more likely that preparing for a portfolio review will
probably be the first time you will need to make a portfolio.
Nevertheless, if you are applying to an undergraduate programme or
degree course that requires a portfolio, most of the advice in this book
will apply to you as well. The main difference will be that your portfo-
lio will most likely have work from your art or drafting class, or visual
and constructed work you have made in your free time. Schools that
ask for a portfolio for admission to the first or freshman year are
usually pretty clear about the format, so make sure you ask exactly
what they are looking for. The rules for passing the academic year
Getting Started 9
vary from school to school and can appear more, or less, mysterious
depending on the school. In most UK schools of architecture, passing
the academic year is based on some form of portfolio review, but the
format is not always specified, and you may or may not be present
at the review. In USA schools you may pass your individual courses,
including the design studio, based on grades given by each of your
professors, but may also need to go through a portfolio review to get
feedback on your overall progress or even to be admitted to higher
level classes. In the USA this kind of review is usually based on a
selection of your work that has been reduced and formatted into a
booklet, most often 8
1
Ú2" × 11" (210 × 297 mm) and it is unusual for

you to be present at the review. In the UK you will be more likely to
submit your actual work, in a large A1 or A2 portfolio case, or even
present it as a degree or diploma exhibition, to your professors and
external examiners. Again, check with your school, and ask other
students for advice.
Whichever format you may need, in both cases you should edit out
material that does not show your strengths. Focus on communicating
your successes, but also make sure that you have a breadth of work,
as most architecture schools are looking for signs of continuing
improvement in integrating different information within design projects.
Choose work that shows your ideas and skills, and your ability to
combine complex issues into a coherent whole, thus making your
design as easy to understand as possible. Use text clearly and
minimally for maximum impact. The most important thing to remem-
ber about the portfolio review process is that the focus is on showing
your design skills and the development of your work over the relevant
period of time. The people who will be looking at your portfolio will be
professors or design tutors, who are interested in your development
as a student. If you can, make friends with students in senior years,
and look at their portfolios. If your school keeps work for validation or
accreditation, or has a Year-End-Show, or keeps portfolio examples,
make sure you see this and understand why the good work is good.
Do not be afraid to ask your professors and older students for advice.
You will find a lot more information about this in Chapter 4 Academic
Portfolio.
Getting/Changing a Job in an Architect’s Office
If you are an undergraduate student, the next kind of portfolio you will
need to prepare will be the one that presents your work to potential
10 The Portfolio
employers. Here, your audience will be looking for your capacity to

be useful in their architectural office so your message needs to
emphasize your competence and compatibility with their work. If you
have any kind of construction experience, such as helping your family
build a house extension, or have worked for architects or contractors
while at school, it is essential that you include copies of drawings or
models or building elements that you made. For example, once you
have had some office experience, you may wish to include a selec-
tion, or even a full set, of construction drawings. Offices are also inter-
ested in your design work at school, particularly if you have done
design or other work in areas which the office has as a specializa-
tion. For example, if you have done housing design at school, and the
office to which you are applying has a strong record in housing, make
sure you highlight housing work in your folio. If you have done projects
on mass-customization and are applying to offices that specialize in
this, show it. Whereas in academia you might just capture someoneÕs
attention if you come across as a bit of an eccentric, offices will be
very interested in your capacity to communicate clearly and succinctly.
That means making your portfolio very simple to understand. Chapter
5 Professional Portfolio is devoted to the professional market and has
more information about this.
Getting into a Diploma Course (Graduate School)
Probably the most important time you will prepare a portfolio as a
student will be when you will try to change schools. Most graduate
programmes or diploma courses have more applicants than places,
and in the best schools the competition is intense. Here your work will
need to have something in common with the strengths of the school,
and it will also need to stand out from the crowd. Make sure your
major interests are clearly represented, and if you think you are short
on work that shows what you can do, do additional work for the portfo-
lio. Chris CirauloÕs portfolio of academic work from the University of

Illinois at Chicago (Figures 2.1 and 2.2) was made for admission to
a Graduate Programme in the USA. It emphasizes strong computer
graphic skills while demonstrating a variety of representational media:
drawings, models, text, etc. It enabled him to get a scholarship to
attend a graduate programme with an outstanding tradition in digital
media. Chapter 4 is devoted to the portfolio in the Academy and has
more information about this.
Getting Started 11
12 The Portfolio
Figure 2.1
Christopher Ciraulo, Osaka International Design Competition